Details announced of Iraq Inquiry meetings in the United States

The Iraq Inquiry has released the names of US officials and military officers it met during talks last week.

Members of the Iraq Inquiry Committee held a series of meetings in Washington DC and Boston from Monday 17 May to Friday 21 May with people from the current and former US administrations. The private discussions took place to allow the Committee to receive a wider international perspective on the UK’s involvement in Iraq over the period being examined by the Inquiry. The Committee also met the current French and Australian Ambassadors in Washington.

The people listed below have all agreed to have their names released publicly. As the meetings were not formal evidence sessions, records of the conversations are not being published. Ambassador Paul Bremer submitted a statement which has been published on the Inquiry’s website. 

The Iraq Inquiry Committee met the following people during its visit to the USA:

  • Ambassador Kim Beazley, currently Ambassador of Australia to the USA.
  • Mr John Bellinger III, Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, 2001-05.
  • Mr Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General, and Ms Ginger Cruz, Deputy Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
  • Ambassador Paul Bremer, Administrator of Iraq, 2003-04.
  • Professor Eliot Cohen, Counsellor to Secretary of State, 2007-09.
  • Ambassador Ryan Crocker, CPA 2003, US Ambassador to Iraq, 2007-09.
  • Mr Charles Duelfer, Head of the Iraq Survey Group, 2004-05.
  • Dr David Kay, Head of the Iraq Survey Group, 2003-04.
  • General (retired) David McKiernan, Coalition Forces Land Component Commander, 2002-03.
  • The Hon. Franklin Miller KBE, Special Assistant to the President, and Senior Director, National Security Council staff, 2001-05.
  • Professor Andrew Natsios, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, 2001-05.
  • Professor Meghan O’Sullivan, Coalition Provisional Authority 2003-04; Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004-07.
  • Mr William Taft IV, State Department Legal Adviser, 2000-04.
  • Ambassador Pierre Vimont, Chief of Staff to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 2002-07, currently Ambassador of France to the USA.
  • Professor Philip Zelikow, Counsellor to Secretary of State, 2005-07.

The Committee also met officials from the World Bank, and took part in seminars at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and at the RAND Corporation.